I am an artist who specializes in the
medium of pastel. I keep changing my mind about how long this
apprenticeship is! Maybe a few years, maybe ten or twenty as
I once thought - not so - I'm up to 50 and am now beginning to
hope my apprenticeship won't be cut short. There is a lot of
work to be done and I feel now with every new painting that my
journey has just begun.

I have always enjoyed and been confident
in my own abilities to draw, and happily no-one ever told me
that I couldn't.

I studied Graphic Design at Swinburne
in Melbourne for two years and life drawing and portraiture at
East Sydney Tech. Although I enjoyed very much the life of the
art student I feel that the best instruction I received was working
privately in oils with the late Leslie Sinclair at Monsalvat
in 1985. I appreciated greatly her expertise in tonal impressionism
and her honesty and quiet humility. I also benefited from the
tuition of the late Allan Martin at his studio in Eltham. I have
never had lessons in pastel but know that my founding in oil
paves the way perfectly for pastel.

I had two young sons when I found it more
and more difficult to juggle the busy lifestyle with the restrained
requirements that go along with working in oil. Not so the get-up-and-go
of pastel. A friend and fellow artist introduced me to the medium
in 1987 and I have been with it happily ever since.